


told me to pick my battles (but I wanna pick 'em all)

by badwoIIf



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: 5 Times, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F, First Meetings, Romance, Slow Burn, Sports, alternative universe, kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22549684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badwoIIf/pseuds/badwoIIf
Summary: Lena Luthor was raised in an old fashion way where women are supposed to be nice, elegant, to please the men, always respect the elderly and never cause any discomfort to people around.But growing up she soon realized that she didn't want to be that fragile person with no personality, so she had learned how to stand up for herself and others.ORFour times Lena took/was in control of the situation, one time she didn't.
Relationships: Kara Danvers & Lena Luthor, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Kudos: 35





	told me to pick my battles (but I wanna pick 'em all)

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys,
> 
> so this is an idea that crossed my mind a couple of days ago and I thought "why not?", so here I am.  
> just wanted to say a few things: 1) keep in mind that English isn't my first language. 2) no beta this chapter (my dear friend vic would do it but I just couldn't wait, sorry darling). 3) also thank you Grammarly for saving my ass. 4) I hope you enjoy this, was fun writing.
> 
> title of the fanfic is from Halsey's song "Killing Boys", from her last album Manic.

_The first time it happens, well, they don’t even know each other._

Lena didn’t know how on earth she let herself be convinced to go out on a Tuesday night, or even worse: how she let herself end up on a Sports Bar of all places on what looks like the night when hell’s gate was open. 

The bar is full, to a point you can’t even see the bartenders if you don’t have your pelvis pressed against the dark wood of the bar. Everything is loud, people are excited on a level Lena had only seem on 4 July. She also feels left out, wearing a red top and black jeans while everyone around her was wearing just bright orange shirts or white and dark blue jerseys.

Sam is the only reason she is even here in the first place if was anyone else calling at 6 PM asking to go out to “ _get drunk and get laid_ ” she would have hung up and turned off her phone. But it was Sam, her best friend since she can remember, since the boarding school in Germany when they were both 12 years old, so when you best friend calls you almost crying because her 4 years old boyfriend/fiancee broke things up one week after going to England for an internship that will last only six months: you just go, no questions asked.

That’s how they end up in this bar close to the university they both attend, “ _It’s perfect, Lena. Easy guys that will buy us drinks! This is all we need right now!_ ” She said, and Lena disagrees but went along to make sure her friend doesn’t end up going home with a creep. That is the plan all along, go out with Sam, let her get drunk and then call a uber to Lena’s house where she will take care of her and share Lena’s king-size bed even if she will wake up in the middle of the night with her friend stealing the blankets.

So five minutes after finding a table Lena is sitting all alone on it because Sam is standing up talking to a group of guys all wearing orange shirts so bright they can blind anyone who looks at them directly for too long, after refusing to initiate a conversation with at least three different men she decides to go herself get a drink that she will be 95% sure won’t have any drugs on, because she doesn’t trust the waiters.

“Excuse me, can you tell me why on earth this place is so crowded?” She asked the bartender after he delivered her drink, whiskey on the rocks. 

The man looks at her incredulously, letting his eyes fly across the room before lands on her again and he says as nice as possible “You kidding, right?”

“Afraid not.”

“Madam, it’s the Superbowl!” He says as is obvious, pointing around to everyone around being too excited and only now she realized all the shirts had the same two logos, all the orange ones have a white horse on it and the dark blue and whites have some kind of bird. Also, the televisions are all on the same channel and have some kind of countdown on it.

“Superbowl?” Even after the new piece of information that was said to her like it was self-explanatory, she needs a few seconds to click something in her brain, sports aren’t Lena’s thing ok? “Oh, it’s the American football thing, right?”

“Thing?” He is so offended, but she stops paying him any attention, taking her beverage and drinking a sip turning to go back to her table.

“Well, that explains the nightmare I am in. I’m going to kill Sam!” With that being said to no one but herself she walks to their table, trying really hard not to spill her drink even with the number of people bumping into her. When she gets to the table she finds out that her friend is sited, but unfortunately, she ain’t alone, all the other three chairs are being occupied by the same men that were talking to Sam. She already did so much by coming here with her friend, but there is no way in hell that she will stand next to the table while Sam flirted with random men, no fucking way. “Sam,” Lena called, loudly because to noise was too much and her friend had two different men whispering in her ear at the same time. “what’s going on?” 

“Lee,” God, she was already tipsy, because Sam only called Lee when she was almost too drunk for her own good. “Those nice men offered to keep me company while you went to get your drink.”

“How nice of them.” Lena rolled her eyes while talking, not even caring to look at any of the guys on the table”

“I know right?” Sam grabbed Lena’s hand and pushed her close, so she could rest her head on Lena’s stomach and Lena thought she was going to take a nap but she opened her eyes and pointed at one of the men sitting in the table, the one farther from her “Matt there asked me about you but I told him that he is not his type, and then he asked who was your type and I said it was me… or Andrea, I hope you don’t mind I showed them a picture of her.”

“Jesus Christ, Sam.”

“Hey, they said you had good taste!” That earned another roll of eyes from Lena. “But then he was gross and whispered something about a threesome with his friends when he thought I wasn’t listening, so don’t trust him.”

“Did he?” Now Lena was looking at him, and the young man was red as a tomato, doing his best to shake his head and start working on an excuse. “Don’t even bother.”

“Oh Lee, did you know that if the Denver Brancos wins, Kyle here promised to buy me all the drinks I want.” She put one of her hands on the shoulders of the guy on her left.

“Broncos!” He corrects right when Lena was opening her mouth to reply to Sam and says that she doesn’t think she should drink more.

“Excuse me?” 

“It’s Denver Broncos, not Brancos.” Kyle explained and Lena could see a hint of annoyance on his tone.

“Kyle, right?” She asked seriously, looking directly at him and he nods his head. “Do I look like I care what is the name of your football team?”

The guy on her right laughed a little, he was the other one that was whispering in Sam’s ear when she got back to the table and the only one she didn’t know the name yet, but at least he was well behaved… like a good dog. She didn’t have time for this if Sam keeps drinking at this speed she’s not gonna spend the night cold because her blankets are being stolen but awake holding someone’s hair while they puke in the toilet all night.

“Darling, I will buy you some water ok?” She had knee besides Sam, talking just for her so the random men wouldn’t listen to what she was saying.

“But I don’t want water, Lee. I want to keep drinking whatever I am drinking.”

“The fact that you don’t even know what you are drinking is a red flag for me. So I will buy you some water ok? Please don’t drink whatever you are drinking and don’t leave with any of these men, ok?”

“But…”

“Sam, I mean it, ok?” She used her serious voice, the one usually uses when her mother is near her. So Sam only nodded, some kind of lucidity coming at her. “Stay sit, if you wanna keep one of them for the night I suggest the one on the right, he isn’t acting like an animal or trying to get your too drunk to even consent.”

“His name is Jackson, I think he is nice too.”

“Good, so don’t leave with any of them but keep Jackson close like a guard dog, ok?”

She received a nod and a thumbs-up, deciding this was good enough she drank her whiskey in only one go and marched to the bar once more.

This time was more crowded, the clock on the television showed “17:46” and going down every second so she assumed people were only trying to get enough alcohol before the game begins. Lena could squeeze herself between people on the bar and waited for a bartender to get free to take her order, tapping her credit card in the wood counter she decides to look around and that’s when she sees her. 

Lena was taught not to stare at people from a very young age, her mother would give her shoulder a small slap every time she did it, but at that moment it was impossible not to. The woman was right next to her, leaning on the counter with both of her elbows, and no other word could describe her other than beautiful.

Lena could only see her profile, because of the position she was, but it was enough. The woman has blonde hair going down until the middle of her back, blue eyes that even in a closed space in the middle of the night looked clear as the sky in the early hours of the morning, she was also taller than Lena even if she was resting both of her elbows in the bar. 

The funny thing about it, she wasn’t even Lena’s usual type. For starts she was blonde, and if the list of brunettes Lena always dated wasn’t any indication she had a preference. She was also muscly, Lena could see that because of the sleeve of the T-shirt clinging on her biceps even though the woman wasn’t even flexing or anything. And the icing on the cake, she was dressed head to toe in sports stuff. 

And when Lena says head to toe, she means it. The woman was wearing a knit beanie green and blue with the same bird on it and was also written “ **SEAHAWKS EST. 1976** ”, followed by a dark blue T-shirt with the phrase “ **2013 NFC CHAMPIONS** ” and Lena had no fucking clue what that meant, also a dark sweet pants almost gray with a black stripe on the sides and “ **SEATTLE** ” written in white inside of the stripes, even her shoes were black and but the Nike symbol was the same green as her beenie. So, it was easy to say the woman was a jock.

It was like the universe took the time to put everything Lena didn’t like in one single person, and even so, she was still drawn at her.

Ogling over the woman so deep made her not pay attention to her surroundings, after a few seconds to regain her posture she realized the woman wasn’t there by herself, there was a man on her right talking to her.

He also was a bunch of things Lena didn’t like, but for starts, he was a man and that’s enough for her. A couple of seconds looking at him gave her the knowledge that he was everything her mother would approve: tall, athletic, white ( _big surprise, Lilian Luthor is racist_ ), around the same age and boring.

She rolled her eyes just at the thought, decided to return her attention to the tall blonde beside her only to realize the so said bland man was talking to her new source of desire.

Lena wasn’t the kind of person who pays attention to other people’s conversation, she was raised better than that. But the bartender was still quite busy and everything around her was covered in a sport she knew nothing about, so what’s the harm in peek a little bit?

“So, you can watch the game on my table. My friends and I will behave and not tease you too much about your shitty choice for a team.” After that Lena could notice that he was wearing one of the ugly orange shirts like half of the bar, at least the blue one was more discreet. She also couldn’t believe his arrogance, she may be raised in old money family and spend most of her life studying in Europe resulting to her not knowing much about American football but one thing she knows is that you shouldn’t insult other people’s team, let alone call it ‘ _Shitty_ ’. For some reason, call it common sense, even her oblivious ass knew this unspoken rule and she had sure about it when saw the blonde woman’s polite smile get smaller by the second.

“I told you, I appreciate the invitation but I’m here with my sister ad some friends, I won’t ditch them to site with strangers.” By the sound of her voice, which was also pretty like that is even possible, Lena had sure the woman had already said something similar to him, who probably refuse to understand.

“Of course you can.” She never said she couldn’t just that she wouldn’t but of course, he choose to ignore that. “And I’m no stranger, I’m Mike.”

“Well, thanks again Mike but I’ll have to pass. Also, my sister will miss her drink so…”

“What are you? Your sister’s maid?” There it was, the ‘nice guy’ behavior Lena was sure it would come out the second he was upset.

“Excuse me?”

“I’m sure I am a much better company than your sister.” He tried to convince the woman using that predictable charm and half-smile, but soon realized she didn’t reciprocate the way expect so he just kept going “C’mon, don’t be dumb if you sit with me maybe your team isn’t the only thing you are going to change for the better. I can improve you.”

“What?”

“I mean, you are cute but somethings gotta change. The team is a good start, you know? Maybe after… no, not maybe, I’m sure that if you stick with me in a few months you’re going to be the perfect woman.” He just didn’t shut up, kept talking like it was no big deal even if the woman had her mouth hanging open in disbelieve “Of you gonna have to lose the beanie and be more girly, you know what I mean? And please lose your muscles, can’t have a woman looking stronger than me, but it’s nothing we can fix an-”

“Oh my God.” That was too much for Lena to keep a straight face, she let a loud laugh leave her mouth as she throws her head back, this brings the attention of the blonde woman and Mike to her.

“What is so funny, lady?” Mike looked so pissed that someone cut him in the middle of his ‘move’ it was hilarious.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” She responded having trouble to catch her breath, dramatically drying her eyes with the back of her finger. “I was trying to stay in my lane but dear God that last sentence was too much.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He was mad now, left his place on the bar next to the woman and standing in front of Lena. lifting his chin and puffing his chest to look bigger or more intimidating. Quite pathetic if you ask Lena. 

“It means that is so funny that you’re not only harassing this woman in to spend time with you but you decided that the offend her is your best way to make her interest.”

“Hey, I’m not harassing her!” He looked a little taken aback by the accusation, leaving Lena’s personal space which she appreciates.

“Yes, you are. I’m here for five minutes and I heard her telling you ‘no’ at least three times. How is that not harassment?”

“Well, I’m talking to her not you… so” He made a move to turn back to the woman and make her stop paying attention to Lena.

“Oh thank God for that. Because everything I want is some random dudebro telling me all the things he wants to change in me What is this technic? Do women really fall for that?” She continued enjoying the stares she was receiving from the blonde, and also the view of Mike’s vein in his forehead almost popping of anger.

“Listen, bitch. I don’t know how you were raised but I learn not to intrude people’s conversation. Let’s go, Karen.” And with that, he tried to grab the woman’s arm and pull her to his direction, but apparently Karen (the pretty blonde) had good reflexes because she easily moved not letting his hand make contact with her. 

“No, you listen.” She had enough, he was already being aggressive but the moment he tried to drag the other woman against her ill was enough. Lena even forgot she was the smaller one of all three of them. “She clearly doesn’t want to go with or keep any kind of conversation so why don’t you just **fuck off** and leave her alone?” 

Lena raised her voice at the end of that phrase, she tends to do that, and this got the attention of a few people around them. “You really gonna stay here with her?” Mike asked in an almost whisper, bothered because of the sets of eyes on the trio. 

“What did I said that made you think I would leave with you?” The Karen girl was genuinely confused.

“Whatever, you not even all that. Fuck you and your fucking lesbo feminist friend.”

And with that he turned and walked away, leaving the two women alone, but not before seeing Lena raise her empty whiskey glass to him, like a toast. 

“What an asshole.” Lena comment more to herself than for anyone else, turning her head to look at Karen before continuing her line of thought “Hey, I’m sorry about how I acted, you know? Jumping on your conversation like that. I don’t even know if you were really annoyed with him but I felt like something had to be done, so it was just to be sure.”

“Oh, believe me, I was. I’m just not good at saying ‘no’ to people and end up being rude.” She explains while making a move to put her hands in the pockets of her pants, she ends up being even more attractive if that was possible.

“You should. Probably will save you from a bunch of situations like that one. What was that by the way? Could he be any more condescend?”

“In my defense, I did say ‘no’ to him I few times but as you could see that he just chose to ignore everything I did that didn’t please him.” The woman lifts both of her arms in a sign of surrender as she said, keeping a smile on her lips and maintaining eye contact with Lena.

_Are they flirting?_

“Ok, I will give you that. But you should have said something when he started to offend you. What was that?”

“I wonder wif that actually work with women.”

“I bet it does work, the number of women with low self-esteem is unbelievable. But you don’t look like that to me.” Fuck it, she will make sure to know if the woman was just being polite or actually flirting with her.

“Thanks.” 

“And you look great, by the way. No need to change at all.” She did her move, it was a lame move but it’s a Tuesday night so give her that.

“Oh…” That earns a blush that started to spread on her cheeks, the woman looks around maybe trying to take Lena’s attention away from her now red face. “Thank you.”

“You are more than welcome Karen.”

“Kara.” 

“What?” The abrupt random word she said trows Lena off her line of flirting she was crossing in her mind, now she must look ridiculous and absolutely confused in front her.

“My name, it’s not Karen, it’s Kara.”

A few seconds of complete silence from Lena followed by a shake of her head like she was trying to make sense of the new information she just received “So the asshole was calling you the wrong name all this time? Along with the sexism and offenses?”

“I guess that’s true.”

“God, can this situation get any worst for you?”

“I mean, it’s it’s not bad now.” She doesn’t know if is voluntary of not but Kara takes a step in her direction and her voice gets lower like she doesn’t want anyone else to hear them from now on.

“No?”

“Not at all, I got rescued by a pretty girl,” She says the sentence like isn’t a big deal like didn’t made Lena blush simply by being called pretty by some stranger at a bar. “That jerk is far from me now thanks to you and we are having a nice conversation while the bartender takes ages to get our drinks.”

“When you put like that I have to agree with you, doesn’t sound bad at all.”

“Are you here by yourself?” Kara asked stepping closer to Lena just because, now they are less than 40cm apart from one another.

“No, my best friend got dumped so I agree to hang out, just to keep an eye on her.”

“Ouch.” 

“Don’t worry about it, she will be better off without him soon enough. It just hurts a bit because he was kind of her fiance, you know?” Lena says like is no big deal, like she didn’t have her heart broken in half at the idea of her friend suffering, but Kara didn’t need to know that.

“Shit, I’m so sorry for her. Is she ok? Where is she?”

“I left her on our table with some guys she met and came here to buy some water for her before engage in your rescue.” 

“You think she is safe?” Kara asked looking around like she would find Sam in the middle of a crowded bar and somehow protect her from any harm, even tho she was unable to scare away a random guy that was bothering. But Lena found it quite sweet.

“She is fine, we know each other for years and she knows better than leaving with random men she just met. Sam may be drunk but she still has her sense.”

“Good, we women have to help each other out when necessary.”

“Damn right.” The bartender came back white Kara’s drinks: a glass of scotch, and two beers. And Lena’s bottle of water, he also apologized for tanking so long but didn’t stay long enough to hear the women say their response. 

So now they don’t have any more reason to keep talking and delay their trip back to their own tables and friends. But Lena didn’t want to stop talking to Kara, which made her a bit weird, of course, Kara was pretty but so far she had nothing in common with Lena and they only talked for a few minutes, what does she feel this need to keep talking to Kara? Trying not to think much about it she decided to ask a question she already knew the answer, everything to delay their departure. “What are you doing here?” She asks leaving the bar but walking so so it was ridiculous, just so she could keep talking with Kara.

It was super lame, Lena almost didn’t recognize herself, she was better than ask dumb stuff just to keep the other person around, but desperate times calls for desperate actions.

“Oh, a few friends and I came here to watch the big game.” Kara pointed excitedly at her beanie and one of the TVs the way she cans because she’s holding all the drinks with her hands.

“The big game, huh?” Lena tries to sound like she refers to football matches like that all the time.

“Yeah.” Something in her voice or expression must have given her away because Kara notices and her big smile and excitement turns into the most serious expression Lena saw her make all the time they meet. “Don’t tell you are also a Broncos fan.”

“Darling, I can assure you I’m not a Broncos fan.”

“Don’t tell me it’s New England, my heart can’t take the disappointment” 

“I’m a ‘no one’ fan if it helps.”

“What?”

“Not into sports, sorry.”

“What?” This time it sounds louder, Kara stops her next step in the middle of the movement, turning completely to Lena and stopping right in front her trying so hard to keep the liquor inside of the cups and don’t spill because she’s not sure when somebody else will volunteer to buy more and face the line.

“I feel like I could have told you that I was actually a red neck and I wouldn’t cause you this much of surprise.” 

“You’re joking, right?”

“I watch the Olympics sometimes.” She says like is a good way out but the horror in Kara’s face just gets worse by the second so she decides to come clean. “I’m not joking, actually the bartender told me about 30 minutes ago that tonight is the Superbowl because I couldn’t be anymore oblivious.”

“So you really don’t like football?”

“I watch real football sometimes, mostly during the Olympics and World Cup. But American football? Can’t say I do.”

“And here I am being all excited and dressed like a damn human outdoor for a team you have no clue about or why I am so pumped.” Kara had the nerve to pout like wasn’t the most adorable thing Lena had seen in a long time.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, darling.” Lena was joking and Kara knew that, but still didn’t stop her from touching Kara’s arm while she said. It was the first time they had actually touched voluntarily and may sound cliche but made them stop completely for a second, they both felt an electric wave running through their bodies after the touch, like a god damn cheap romance novel. And for a moment they got lost in each other’s eyes, but all that magic moment was broke when they listen to the bar start singing the national anthem.

“Shit, it’s about to start. I gotta go but thank you again for helping me out with the whole rescue thing tonight…” And like that Kara realized she didn’t know her name.

“Lena, my name is Lena.”

“Well, thank you again, Lena.” And even if she hated to admit, her name just sounds better leaving her mouth. It was weird, Lena had felt attracted to other women before in her life but everything about Kara just feels different, more intense.

“Again, you are welcome Kara. Now go, your game is about to start and I would feel bad if you miss the start.”

“Yeah, I really should go, my friends are going to kill me. It was nice meeting you, Lena.” 

“Likewise.”

It was almost melancholic the way Lena raised her beverage free hand to give a small goodbye to Kara that stayed still for a few seconds before giving her a small smile and a nod with her head before turning and walk away almost running into the middle of the crowd in the opposite direction from where Lena’s table was. Which left Lena standing alone in the middle of the bar with a bottle of water that started to drip from the time she took to go back from her table, she eventually went back to find Sam naping in Jackson’s shoulder and no sign of the other two guys anywhere near her.

After waking up her friend and convince her to go home, having to promise to stop at a McDonald’s drive-thru on their way, they were outside the bar waiting for the Uber to arrive. Lena couldn’t stop the feeling in her chest that she was missing something big by leaving like that but it will pass, she had crushes in bars and nightclubs before, right now the only thing that matters was taking Sam home safe and make sure she doesn’t die from dehydration.

When her Uber is parked in front of the bar and Sam is getting in alone - because she demanded - Lena hears someone call her name in the middle of the night of National City. She turns around and finds Kara standing a few feet away from her, she can see Kara is sweating a little and breathing heavily, she notices that the blonde woman is holding a piece of paper in her hand.

“Just felt dumb letting your leave like that.” She said after walk until she was in front of Lena, the same distance they had between them inside when Lena touched her arm, without even ask or say anything more she just took Lena’s had in her own, put the piece of paper in her palm closing right after and took the same hand and rested in Lena’s chest on top of her heart. “Call if you feel it too, ok?”

Before having time to process or say anything back to Kara a loud noise erupts from inside the bar taking them both by surprise. Clearly something had happened in the game and Kara was missing it, she tried to look like she didn’t care but her face gave it away so easily, it was adorable to watch.

“Go watch your game.” 

With that Kara turns away and starts fast walking towards the bar again, but not before stopping at the entrance and turn again to Lena’s direction not saying anything just making a phone with her hand and putting near her ear as a clear signal to Lena about what she wants, after that she disappears behind the wood door and Lena remembers she has a Uber to enter when the driver blew the horn.

**...**

That night the Seattle Seahawks won the Superbowl for the first time in their history.

Kara thought that the moment the judge ended the game and was 43-8 for her team was the happiest she ever been in her whole life. Until later that night when receiving a text from an unknown number that reads “ _Congratulations on the title, stayed late to see the results but didn’t understand much, maybe we should meet and you can teach me a few things about your American football._ _–_ **_Lena_ ** **.** ”

**Author's Note:**

> next chapters will be posted as soon as I write them.  
> see you soon :)  
> \- G.


End file.
